The Tablet Thread

[Mahdi]

Dunno, but the interconnectivity with a blackberry phone is surely software, not hardware, and swtiching OS's would undoubtidly eliminate that huge benefit.

[Mahdi]

Hard on the heels of the PlayBook, Dell has announced that it will announce 3", 4", 7" and 10" tablets in the coming weeks. The 10" will be tempting, assuming it's sepcs outdo the PlayBook, windows 7 is better than QNX, and the price is right. No way to tell for now.

Unless there any any objections I'm going to merge this thread witht he Ipad thread and turn them into a non-product specific tablet thread.

3 and 4 inch tablets though? Seriously? Sound like touchscreen mps players to me.

[Andrew]

Hard on the heels of the PlayBook, Dell has announced that it will announce 3", 4", 7" and 10" tablets in the coming weeks. The 10" will be tempting, assuming it's sepcs outdo the PlayBook, windows 7 is better than QNX, and the price is right. No way to tell for now.

Unless there any any objections I'm going to merge this thread witht he Ipad thread and turn them into a non-product specific tablet thread.

3 and 4 inch tablets though? Seriously? Sound like touchscreen mps players to me.

Feel free to merge threads and change title of it.

3 and 4 inch?

I thought smartphones were 3-4 inch screen?

My sansa view video mp4 player is 2.5"

So I'm really confused how you make a 3 inch tablet, when smartphones (android/iphone) are touchscreen and ~4 inches.

[Mahdi]

I completely agree. I said touchscreen mp3 player instead of smartphone on the assumption that they can't make calls (ala Ipod Touch, which has a bunch of basic smartphone capabilities without the phone or tablet size).

Then again, isn't the Streak just another smartphone that Dell calls a tablet too? Dell seems to be calling any touchscreen device they make a "Tablet" since they are so popular right now.

[Mahdi]

Hmm, I can't seem to change that little blurb under the title . Other mods, little help?

[Gobalopper]

You can use the dropdown near the bottom of the page to change it. The first option should be "Topic Moderation" and the option you want is "Edit Topic Title".

[Andrew]

Found it.

Go to first post of thread, use full editor, and below thread title has thread description thing. I removed it.

[Mahdi]

I played with an IPad yesterday at a Best Buy - I really don't know how a 7" tablet is going to work. I found the IPad to be pretty much a perfect size (although it would be better if it was 16x9). Knocking off those inches will be rough.

[Mahdi]

Playbook hands on. Looking real good. If only it was bigger.

[Andrew]

So is the OS based upon adobe air? Or is the air just a dev platform to make apps that run on blackberry OS?

Looked nice.

Can't wait for android tablets.

[Mahdi]

The OS is based on, and made by, QNX. I'm pretty sure they said Adobe Air was used in it though.

[Mahdi]

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/01/5390012-viewsonics-10-inch-tablet-boots-windows-and-android

10 inch screen

$629 USD

Intel Atom 1.66GHz processor

1 gb ram

16 gb harddrive

micro sd slot

Wifi only

Dual loaded with Android 1.6 and Windows 7.

[Andrew]

Sadly the 7" version if using same hardware looks much better, since it is a lot cheaper and has newer (2.2) android version.

Pairing windows and android 1.6, is probably being done to make android look bad. I'm sure Microsoft had something to do with that.

Also the atom 1.66ghz is slow (compared to other atoms). Once someone comes out with the dual core 1.5ghz atom versions that will be more interesting.

$630 USD for 10" tablet? I could get dual core atom netbook for $400 CAD, Add 2gb ram for $40. Add 40gb ocz vertex2 for $130 (or 60gb vertex1). Total is $570. Sadly still not interested unless there is some specific reason for needing tablet form factor.

Although I guess I'd have to try to use a tablet to see how it works.

[Mahdi]

I expect that, like a Laptop always costing more than a PC with equivalent specs, a Tablet will always cost more than a similarily powerfull laptop, but I agree - this is way too much. But it is a 10 inch product, which means that not everybody is going to focus on the 7" market, which it had started to look like for awhile. We still don't have prices or details for HP's 10" tablet yet, and they've been making tablets for years, so here's hoping it is something special (and affordable).

[Mahdi]

Finally some pricing news on the Blackberry Playbook. No solid numbers, but Balsille has stated the device will be less than $500 - whether that is USD, CAD, or both now that the two are at parity again, is anybodies guess.

What is really interesting is, if the playbook will not cost more than $500, and there are 64GB, 32 GB, and 16GB models, does that mean we could be getting a $300, $350 16 GB playbook? If the playbook does have a Micro or regular SD slot as well this would be amazing. Since tablets are for consumption, not production, and will in no way replace your regular PC with it's giant harddrive, who would need anything more than a 16gb harddrive with SD expansion?

Anyone else getting the impression that this whole playbook thing may be a loss leader to convince people to stick with/purchase new BB phones? Buy a sub-$500 kick ass tablet with no monthly data plan, but to get all the features you also need a blackberry phone? Pretty clever. If only it had a bigger screen.

Engadget Pricing Article

[Andrew]

Is that $500 without contract? Also assuming it is 64 gbmodel.

If true, then that sounds like a good start.

Yeah, blackberry needs to have cheap prices to keep customers. They've lost a lot to iphone and android.

Some sort of packaged deal for playbook and crackberry would be very interesting. Surprised I don't hear about more combo deals from other companies.

[Mahdi]

There are no contracts - the playbook is wifi only (for now) meaning no subsidized pricing and no data plans.

Anyone got to play with the galaxy tab yet? Lots of middling reviews - 7's and the like. Half seem to love the smaller screen, half hate it. Myself, the pro-7 inchers have me thinking the 7" screen may not be as bad as I thought. They have a point when they say that that since this is a tablet you probably won't have it sitting flat on a table with you staring over it touch typing anyway, and therefore the smaller size makes it easier to thumb type.

New video showing the playbook browser running circles around the ipads:

Of course, it is a RIM video so take it with a grain of salt. It's also comparing against this years ipad instead of next years ipad, which will be the playbooks real competition.

[gryphon]

 

Anyone got to play with the galaxy tab yet?

Only for a couple of minutes. It is not as heavy as the iPad, smaller and the desktop / interface is awfully similar. And so far a 7' screen has not touched my sweet spot yet.

[Mahdi]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/16/blackberry-playbook-first-hands-on-video/#disqus_thread - Short hands on playbook between Balsille and Engadget

It looked pretty laggy there, but seeing as there was a video running the entire time, (that continued to play in a small square while you opened other applications) that you could hear continue to play while he used other applications that's pretty impressive. Hopefully things will be a bit smoother by the time they launch.

[Mahdi]

In an awesome bit of news, the Playbook, while it will not have micro or regular SD, will have USB/USB on the go (?), so you can connect external harddrives to it. So much better than SD IMO.

[Andrew]

That sounds good.

So I could hook up usb sticks?

Or I presume microusb? normal usb?

hmm, does it have wifi?

Would be nice to connect to media center in house to watch videos etc over router.

EDIT:

news articles only mention usb, so I'd assume normal usb2.0

[Mahdi]

It does have wifi and bluetooth. If you have a blackberry it bluetooth tethers to your phone to use yoru phones data plan for websurfing, thereby excluding the need for another data plan.

It has USB on the go, which somehow means it is a slave device when you hook it up to your computer, but the host device when you connect external drives to it. So I dunno if that means it has both the small and big usb ports or if there is a converter you need to buy or what. Someone with more knowledge than me will need to clarify.

Unfortunately, my water heater was yellow tagged a couple of hours ago, which pretty much killed my thoughts of buying this when it comes out, unless the oil company has some great financing deal. Fuck.

[gryphon]

 

It does have wifi and bluetooth.  If you have a blackberry it bluetooth tethers to your phone to use yoru phones data plan for websurfing, thereby excluding the need for another data plan.

Keep in mind that your provider also has a say in that and the feature can be disabled.

[Mahdi]

Cell phone provider you mean? I see Americans complaining about their providers having disabled it but none of the three major companies here have blocked tethering. They want you to tether, because we don't have unlimited data plans, and if you go over your limit they get to charge you a small (medium, and large) fortune. I tether once in awhile on my laptops now, when my home internet is spotty, which happens since I'm line of sight wireless.

I'm sure you know what usb on the go is gryphon. Could you explain it a bit?

[gryphon]

I always forget how annoying it must be for the greater part of the world not to have unlimited / fair-use data policies on cellphone contracts. :) Tethering is officially not allowed on those contracts.

Isn't USBotG an addition to the USB 2 protocol where USB slave units can initiate an USB connection them selfs?

Normally you have an USB host that initiates the connection (your laptop to start synchronizing files to your mobile, a computer to a scanner, etc..) It also indicates that power is drawn from the host to the slave. USBotG is the option for USB slave units (usually phones, PDA's, calculators) to be a USB host them selfs. Your phone or Blackberry tablet for instance can initiate a file transfer or synchronize contacts to another phone via USB.

If I'm correct it is not a new feature. It is an USB 2 option for a long time if not from the start of the USB 2 protocol.